Wotton Underwood is a
villageA village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet, but smaller than a town or city. Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New York City and the Saifi Village in...
and also a
civil parishIn England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and in some places the lowest tier of local government, below districts and counties. A civil parish can alternatively be known as a town, village, neighbourhood or community by resolution of its parish council; and in a limited number of...
within
Aylesbury ValeThe Aylesbury Vale is a large area of flat land mostly in Buckinghamshire, England. Its boundary is marked by Milton Keynes to the north, Leighton Buzzard and the Chiltern Hills to the east and south, Thame to the south and Bicester to the west.The vale is named after Aylesbury, the county town of...
district in
BuckinghamshireBuckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury and the largest town in ceremonial Buckinghamshire is Milton Keynes....
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is located about three and a half miles west of
WaddesdonWaddesdon is a village within the Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England, 6 miles from Aylesbury on the A41 road...
, four miles north of
Long CrendonLong Crendon is a village and also a civil parish within Aylesbury Vale district in Buckinghamshire, England, about 3 miles west of Haddenham and 2 miles northwest of Thame.The village has only been known as Long Crendon since the English Civil War...
.
The village name 'Wotton' is
Anglo SaxonOld English , also called Anglo-Saxon, is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written in parts of what are now England and south-eastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century. What survives through writing represents primarily the literary...
in origin, and means 'farm near a wood'. It was recorded in the
Domesday BookThe Domesday Book is the record of the great survey of England completed in 1086, executed for William I of England, or William the Conqueror...
of 1086 as
Oltone, though earlier (in 848) it was recorded in the
Anglo-Saxon ChronicleThe Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The annals were initially created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great. Multiple manuscript copies were made and distributed to monasteries...
as
Wudotun. The affix 'Underwood' was added later to distinguish the village from other places also called Wotton. The affix means 'near the wood' and refers to the village's proximity to the ancient
Bernwood ForestBernwood was one of several forests of the ancient kingdom of England and was a Royal hunting forest. It is thought to have been set aside as Royal hunting land when the Anglo-Saxon kings had a palace at Brill in the 10th century and was a particularly favoured place of Edward the Confessor, who...
.
The present-day
manor houseA manor house or fortified manor-house is a country house, which has historically formed the administrative centre of a manor , the lowest unit of territorial organization in the feudal system...
in the village,
Wotton HouseWotton House, or Wotton, the manor house in Wotton Underwood , was rebuilt between 1704 and 1714 to a design very similar to that of Buckingham House. The manor house had since the Norman conquest been the principal seat of the Grenville family, a notable member of whom was George Grenville,...
, dates from the early eighteenth century but has been much altered since, notably by
John SoaneSir John Soane, RA was an English architect who specialised in the Neo-Classical style. His architectural works are distinguished by their clean lines, massing of simple form, decisive detailing, careful proportions and skilful use of light sources...
in the 1820s.
South Pavilion, the former home of actor John Gielgud, was bought by
TonyAnthony Charles Lynton "Tony" Blair is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
and
Cherie BlairCherie Blair , known professionally as Cherie Booth QC, is an English barrister. She is married to the former British Prime Minister and current Envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East, Tony Blair.-Early life:...
for £4m, in 2008.
Railways
The
Brill TramwayThe Brill Tramway or Brill branch, originally the Wotton Tramway, was a far-flung and little used single-track section of the Metropolitan Railway in Buckinghamshire, England...
, originally known as the Wotton Tramway and, from 1899, part of the
Metropolitan RailwayMetropolitan Railway can refer to:* Metropolitan line, part of the London Underground* Metropolitan and Metropolitan District Railways, the first two underground railways to be built in London...
, which served the area, had a station named which closed in 1935 with the rest of the line.
The
Great Central RailwayThe Great Central Railway was a railway company in England which came into being when the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway changed its name in 1897 in anticipation of the opening in 1899 of its London Extension . On 1 January 1923, it was grouped into the London and North Eastern...
built a line from Grendon Underwood to Princes Risborough, and upon that opened a station at
Wotton-History:The station was opened by the Great Central Railway on 1 April 1906, becoming part of the London and North Eastern Railway during the Grouping of 1923. It was built to the south of the point where the GCR crossed the Brill Tramway near its station.. It was closed on 7 December...
in 1906; this closed in 1953.
Notable residents
- The Dukes of Buckingham and Chandos
- William Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville
- John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor/director/producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
- Graham Taylor